Reisman: Nick Spano's career takes big hit

Feb. 16, 2012

Written by

Nick Spano won’t be sentenced until June, but he’s already paying a heavy price for his $53,000 tax-evasion transgression.

In the last few days, Spano’s Albany lobbying firm, Empire Strategic Planning, has lost at least three major clients with contracts worth an approximate total of $540,000. They include the Westchester Medical Center, Yonkers Raceway and Genting Group, the Malaysian resort and casino company.

The Genting contract alone amounted to about $300,000.

In January, Gov. Andrew Cuomo proposed that the state form a partnership with Genting to build a $4 billion convention center — the largest in the country — at Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens where Genting already operates a 4,500-machine racino.

I was originally tipped off to the clients’ defection by a person closely connected with Spano’s interests who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The tip was later confirmed by The Journal News. My source said if more shoes drop, Spano is “probably done” as a lobbyist.

That may or may not be true in the long run. Nonetheless, the fact remains that a severe blow has been served on Spano in the short term. And it could get worse.

He agreed to plead guilty to the single tax charge in exchange for 12 to 18 months in prison, but the federal judge is not bound by that deal. Spano has fallen mightily, but it is something to wonder that he could be put behind bars for what the feds pinned on him — not much.

Legally speaking, it pretty much boils down to this: Spano was a crafty state legislator who knew how to work the system to his maximum benefit. His work as a “consultant” for an insurance broker doing business with the state doesn’t look good ethically, but that wasn’t a provable crime. Not according to the feds anyway.

Spano failed to report all of his income — including a $45,000 commission on a real estate transaction — and that is a crime.

But half the waitresses and moonlighting cops in America don’t declare what they make in cash tips and wages, and they don’t go to jail. Neither do the white-collar sharpies who pay high-priced tax accountants to figure out all sorts of creative ways of hiding income from the IRS.

(Page 2 of 2)

It is undisputed that Spano did some good things for Yonkers. Over a long career in the state Legislature, he brought home the proverbial bacon for any number of programs and organizations and annually played a key role in securing sorely need state education aid to the city’s public schools. His most ardent supporters point to his tireless advocacy of those with mental and developmental disabilities.

They hope all of this will be taken into consideration when he is sentenced — and they expect that scores of people will write letters to the judge, asking for leniency. Nevertheless, the aforementioned source believes there is a 70 percent chance that Spano will get jail time.

Some other things came up in the conversation with this person, among them the issue of Spano’s younger brother, John Spano, who was a deputy commissioner with the state Office of General Services.

The U.S. Attorney Office’s complaint noted that while serving in the Senate, Nick Spano was a paid consultant for Professional Risk Managers, a White Plains insurance firm. Spano’s fee was increased significantly in 1996 after PRM got a contract with the Office of General Services, eventually rising to $100,000 a year.

The complaint did not mention the brother, but I pointed out in a column that it was curious that John Spano had a big job with the OGS at the time the PRM contract was inked.

But the inside source said he had nothing to do with the deal.

Furthermore, he said, John Spano actually disliked PRM because his wife, who worked at the firm as a secretary, was let go.

There were no charges connected with this, but investigators threw it in the complaint as red meat for public consumption.

In the end, they only got Spano on the tax dodge. To get that far, they evidently spent years scanning every financial document he had in his possession, short of dry cleaning bills.

According to the source, they subpoenaed one of Spano’s nephews who is in the home-heating business because he received a check for $2,500 from Zehy Jereis, a former Spano protege who is on trial in the Ridge Hill bribery case. It turned out to be payment for an oil delivery to an apartment building owned by the Jereis family.

The feds also tried to connect Spano’s two-family rental property at 221 Ridge St. in Yonkers to the Ridge Hill scandal simply because of the common word, “Ridge.”

I’m told that Spano will not be called to testify at the Ridge Hill trial. He is not being questioned further about anything.

He made his deal with the government.

He’s done with all of it. Time will tell if that’s true.

But one thing is certain: the chore of picking up the pieces of his life is just beginning.